K. This is the 1st working draft of vol. VI. It still ... - From Marx to Mao

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE ANTI-JAPONESE WAR
A SUMMARY OF FIVE YEARS PRODUCTION BY
THE GARRISON ARMY
(a) Outline
In the new and difficult environment since the War of Resistance
and following Chairman Mao’s call for production, the garrison army
began the Production Movement in the autumn of 1938. At the time,
production was not yet aimed at self-sufficiency and was merely
making up for deficiencies in the necessities of life. We could only
give each member of the force 0.05 yuan for vegetables and 1.5 jin
FROM MARX
TO MAO
of grain per day. At the market-prices of the time each yuan could
⋆
buy 30-40 jin of vegetables, 2 jin of edible oil, or 100 jin of fire
wood. With a hundred men in a company, each day they had 5 yuan
for vegetables. If they bought vegetables, they could not buy oil,
salt and firewood. If they bought oil, salt and firewood, they could
not buy vegetables. Pork was even further beyond their reach. As
for their clothing and bedding, you could rarely see a soldier whose
clothing was not darned and patched. Bullet bags were so tattered
they could not longer carry bullets, which had to be put in pouches.
Some wore padded clothes in summer and some wore shorts in winter.
Some went on parade NOT barefoot FOR in the snow and some could not
even find a broken old leather bag for leg wrappings. These were
the material conditions of the troops then.
The methods COMMERCIAL
used in the Production Movement at that time were:
(i) to set up co-operatives; (ii) to plant lots of vegetables; (iii) to
set up grinding-mills, to raise pigs and sheep, to make bean curd
and to grow bean sprouts; (iv) to mobilize every soldier to learn to
make shoes; (v) DISTRIBUTION
to knit woollen clothes, socks, shoes and gloves;
(vi) to promote economy and prevent waste. The result of half a
year’s production in 1938 exceeded the plan, and the soldiers’ life
was greatly improved. For example, they ensured self-sufficiency
in vegetables, each week they had two pork meals, they partly met
requirements for woollen clothes, socks, gloves and shoes, and they
supplemented the supply of bullet bags, pouches, leather bags and
leg wrappings.
The significant achievements in production during the latter half
of 1938 raised the troops’ enthusiasm for, and trust in, production.
So in 1939 even greater tasks for self-supporting production could
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